Friday, January 24, 2014

Frequently, I am introduced in the following manner, "He is the
first Muslim guy to commemorate Holocaust, and perhaps the first
non-Jewish person to commemorate the Holocaust as well." Of all the people on the earth, my mother would be pleased to know that I am
doing what it takes to be a "good Muslim," to respect, honor and protect the
sanctity of life. As a Muslim committed to building cohesive societies, it was an honor
to step up to the plate. Quran 3:133, "And vie with one another to
attain to your Sustainer's forgiveness and to a paradise as vast as the
heavens and the earth, which has been readied for the God-conscious." I
am not driven by paradise, nor do I seek rewards. But it does mean
building a cohesive world where no one has to live in apprehension or
fear of the other. God-conscious simply means being caring and sensitive
to all of God's creation; life and matter. Of all the people on the earth, my mother would be pleased to know I
am doing what it takes to be a "good Muslim," to respect, honor and
protect the sanctity of life.

I have always believed, and I read the assessments of some of the
best brains that if we can resolve the Jewish-Palestinian conflict,
i.e., security to Jews and justice to the Palestinians, most of the
world issues will collapse and a period of peace on earth will begin.

Commemorating Holocaust and Genocides for seven years is a fulfillment of a lifelong desire.

My Dream

I have a dream, a dream to strengthen the pluralistic values of America, and the desire to encourage the community of nations to review our values of Liberty, Justice and co-existence as catalysts for prosperity.

No community or a nation can have undue advantages over others. Such benefits are temporary and deleterious to lasting peace.

We have to maintain a healthy balance within our communities and with all nations, what is good for America, has got to be good for the world and vice versa.

SPEAKER, THINKER, WRITER

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker, writer, optimist, educator and an activist of Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam, India and Civil Societies. He manages the Foundation for Pluralism and World Muslim Congress and offers Pluralistic solutions to the media and the public on issues of the day.

He is available to speak at your school, university, work place, seminars or place of worship and interfaith gatherings.

He was a speaker and a moderator at the 2009 Parliament of Worlds Religions in Melbourne, Australia, and speaker at Universal Peace Federation's peace initiative in Jerusalem in August 2010

Mike is a conflict mitigater and a goodwill nurturer, all his work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at

http://www.mikeghouse.net/

INTERFAITH SPEAKER

It is my duty

It is my patriotic duty to speak up. Had each one of us spoken, we would not have sacrficed 3000 of our sons and daughters, and massacred a million Iraqi's. Unfortunately, we have to carry this burden on our conscience for the genocide we shamelessly watched and stood by. What are we going to tell our kids? That we were chickens and did not have the guts to speak up?

With the exception of Congressman Murtha and Barack Obama, the senate and the house were scared to death to speak up. Thanks God, November 7, 2006 gave us all new freedom. We need to elect people who are not afraid to speak up, they will be true patriots to our nation and to our values of freedom and democracy.

In my blog, I will be writing things reflective of our values of Justice, freedom and liberty.

Committment

Personally, I am committed to promoting goodwill amongst people, I believe knowledge leads to understanding, and understanding to acceptance and appreciation of a different point of view.

If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Ray Bradbury "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy... Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.… Whatever you can do or dream that you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."

and this "If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."

Mike Ghouse " Whatever you do in life, do it wholeheartedly, there is joy in it for every one around including ourselves"

Taking a principled stand

Please be aware that I will do my best to take a principled stand on Justice. Which simply means no matter who, what or where there is injustice, I will speak out.

Most of our policies are based on short sightedness, What is our gain? Who can we please and how can we remain in our power positions? Be it our President, Congressman, Senator or a public officer, I will speak out.

When it comes to other nations, if they are non-inclusive and mistreat any segment of their population, I will speak out.

I will defend the goodness of every religion, religion is the reason we have relative peace in the world, without which it will be chaotic. For the crimes of mankind, let's find the culprit and laser bark at him, and not his family, his race, his ethnicity or his religion.

I am a moderate Republican, and my first loyalty is to democracy before the blinding loyalty to my party. Obama is the right man in our history for our nation at this time and I have supported him all the way, the more I know about him, the more I feel he is the right man for the job.My thought process is similar to Obama's. In fact he has used the same words in his speeches that I wrote on my blog a week ahead of him.ISRAEL & PALESTINE

Thank God, I have no barriers between me and another human being.

Time permitting I want to see all points of view with an open mind, ultimately it is me or you, who is going to feel right or wrong about things and the pangs I will endure for realizing that I believed in the wrong thing.

No Imam, Rabbi, Pundit or Pastor is responsible for my actions and finding the truth is my own responsibility. Watching a Hamas movie does not make me a Hamas supporter or a Zionist movie would make me a Zionist supporter. We need to raise about such petty pegs.

My loyalty is to justice; and not to Israel or Palestine, which means support is based on issues and items and not wholesale blind support or un-support.

We do not have peace in Middleeast because of our loyalties to entities and not Justice. Every one wants peace, but they are not going about the right way.

Speaker and Writer

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator.

He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Pluralism, interfaith, Islam, India, Multiculturism, Terrorism, Peace, Politics and Civic issues. He co-chairs the center for interfaith inquiry of the Memnosyne Foundation and presides the Foundation for Pluralism. He is the president of World Muslim Congress a think tank with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world and vice-Versa.

His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Web sites and Blogs listed at his personal web site www.MikeGhouse.net . He has authored over 600 articles on Pluralism, interfaith, Islam, India and peace.

His life mission is to open people’s hearts and minds towards fellow beings by mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill. He is a peace maker and an educator with two Master degrees and working on his doctorate in Psychology. He has two books on the horizon ; Basic Islam- everything you want to know about Islam and Pluralism, a text book on Pluralism 101.

Mission

My civic Mission is to influence the policy makers of our country, to put our nation on the path of fairness, justice and equity in dealing with our domestic and foreign affairs. "Just" dealings have the power to take us, and the World into the next century with relative peace and prosperity.